


Cloud Cover

by bTackt



Category: The Cube SMP
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-02-23 10:57:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13188639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bTackt/pseuds/bTackt
Summary: Remember Kiani?The story of an amazing relationship mysteriously destroyed. Will and Jordan, gamers and best friends, deal with the repercussions of meeting each other face-to-face; as a result, both boys start to doubt themselves. New personalities enter Will's life who are inspiring, yet also lack self-confidence. Through them, Will realizes he's been lost in his identity. He starts to question if he knows what friendship is, what love is, and whether he even knows who he is. What he does know is that when the light dims, it's not because the sun fades, it's because of the cloud cover.--This story is inspired by what happened to Will "Kiingtong" and Jordan "Bayani" of the Cube. The untold comes to life...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a novel I started for NaNoWriMo 2014. I believed I could write my own novel based on the sudden "break-up" of Kiani. I spent an extensive amount of time trying to finish it and also editing the heck out of it to polish it to perfection. It was never finished. I haven't touched it for years, but I think parts of it were really good. Now, looking back, I realize there's no way this can be my own novel; it is a fanfiction, since it's based on real people. But I wrote it that way.
> 
> I currently have no plans to finish it. It was so nice I would love if it ever got finished, so it's like a 15% chance it ever gets finished but I have no current plans/inspiration to finish it.
> 
> Disclaimer: I did not know much about video games in 2014. Accuracy of video game descriptions is not ensured.
> 
> There are 21 chapters and it cuts off in a weird place. I'll post one at a time, as a reward to myself for completing self-assigned blogging/writing assignments. I doubt anyone will read this, but I worked hard on it once. Also, nobody could possibly care about this particular ship anymore, you'd read it for the reading, not the characters. There are a number of important OCs too.

"What? What? Tell me!" Will pressed, as Jordan screamed.

"My dragon! It's on fire!" Jordan exclaimed.

Will flew to the top of the desolate Lucky Block Island as he watched Jordan try to maneuver his dragon towards the water.

"Don't die on me!" Jordan pleaded, as he helplessly watched the health of his beautiful blue dragon quickly deteriorate. All too soon, the being he was riding on vanished and he plummeted into the ocean below with a splash.

"He died?" Will questioned. Jordan grunted. "Aw, dude. Tough luck. You shouldn't have brought him on the island in the first place, though," he mirthfully added. Lucky Block Island was naturally a dangerous place, filled with risk and reward. And fiery deaths.

"You, you brought your dragon here; who are you to talk!" Jordan retorted, laughing.

"Mine's fine; he's not dead," Will laughed back. Jordan felt disgusted by his inability to keep dragons alive.

"Come on! That's the second dragon dead in like—three days!" he groaned, as he resurfaced the water, morphed into a squid, and swam towards shore. Will just chuckled, flying his own dragon over the ocean towards their house in the Magical Forest.

Suddenly, the live stream chat was flooding with tens of messages per second; the thousands of viewers exploded in both agony and mockery at the death of the dragon. Will watched as it flew past, too fast for him to read.

"Well guys, I'm too frustrated to continue with Cube Evo right now," Jordan told his Internet audience, as he logged out of the Minecraft server. He pushed his hair around, readjusting it, making sure his camera still captured a satiable version of his face.

"I think we'll do a UHC game or something now; what d'ya think, Will?" Jordan said.

"Sure, why not," Will said, as he flew his dragon into the dragon cave and safely sealed the entrance. He logged out of Cube Evolution. "How many hours are we at?"

"Well, it's four o'clock here, so we've completed six out of twelve hours so far," Jordan calculated.

"Only halfway? Wow, we have a long way to go. Dude, it's ten o'clock here and I still need to get something to eat for dinner. How's the fund going?" Will said, as the 'Look at all those chickens!' meme played for the umpteenth time, celebrating a ten dollar donation.

"We're at almost 1450 dollars so far, guys! Thank you again so much. Remember, the link to donate is down in the description. We're trying to raise two thousand dollars for Will to be able to attend PAX, and the rest is going to charity!" Jordan addressed the viewers. "Will, we're getting close to fifteen hundred...those those hot peppers are in order soon!" At certain milestones of their goal the boys were doing entertaining challenges for the audience.

"Aw, dude, that's going to be nasty," Will said as he thought of eating the raw chiles. Last time he had eaten hot peppers were for a PvP challenge video against Jordan. Will didn't mind the spiciness, but the texture of the peppers were disgusting. Jordan had thrown up after the recording was over.

"Let's see if Zest can set us up with an ultra hardcore match," Jordan said, as he clicked over to Skype. Jordan sent a message to their server-hosting friend, and leaned back in his chair, looking out the window at the grey but effervescent Seattle sky. Everything was going well. He had been planning the twelve-hour Minecraft live stream for a long time, and it looked like they were going to be able to raise the money that Will needed to travel to Seattle. He was finally going to get to see Will in real life, the guy he hung out and gamed with for hours a day.

On the west end of the suburbs of Southampton, England, Will turned off his facecam and turned to check Tweetdeck on his second monitor. He watched as his feeds scurried by the screen, still in shock about the deplorable dragon death. Looking out the window at the dreary skyline, Will reflected on what he was about to be able to do—visit America. He and Jordan, along with the rest of the Cube Minecraft group, were going to meet up at a gaming convention, PAX Prime, in Jordan's hometown, Seattle. Given that they would be able to collect enough funds, Will would be able to come live with Jordan for a week while he stayed for the convention and met the other Cube members.

Very few of the twenty members of the YouTube collaboration group had ever seen each other in real life, so it was definitely going to be an occasion. The gamers recorded Minecraft videos together over the internet to post on YouTube. The boys, along with a few girls, ages 16-22, were quite the closely knit family. Will wanted to meet each of them, but the one he looked forward to seeing most was Jordan. Jordan had actually been the one responsible for getting Will added to the Cube. Will had pretended to fangirl over Jordan in order to mock his own friends, and Jordan had noticed his tweets and thought his channel was interesting. So, in a way, Will owed a lot of his YouTube career to Jordan.

Now, nearly three months later, the two hung out practically every day. They would play video games together over the internet, talk and build Minecraft architecture, play as a powerful team in player versus player combat games, and record videos for YouTube on the Cube servers. Even though there were tens of other guys in the Cube, Will and Jordan just went together. They thought the same way, shared the same sense of humor, and were brought together over their love of building structures in Minecraft. They operated in conjuction and worked as a team. They were as inseparable as two friends could be.

Now Jordan was hosting this live stream for Will, to raise the money needed to fly him to America. The trip was going to be the time of his life, Will thought.

He flipped back to the live stream page and idly read the chat, which had settled down while the ultra hardcore game was being set up. As he read the kind messages the viewers had left, Will thought of how lucky he was to be able to be in such a position to help bring happiness to thousands of people's lives, something that made himself happy.

"Hey, you guys," Jordan commented offhandedly to the viewers, "you know, Will and I were looking at some family history stuff the other day, and we found out we're half-brothers!"

Before Will's eyes, the chat burst in disbelief. Happy and stunned interjections repeated themselves over and over again.

"Heh, yeah, it was pretty weird," Will added awkwardly.

"I think it's something like our fathers...or mothers, I don't know. My younger brother is my other half-brother, but Will is my brother by...oh, I don't know, it was confusing," Jordan said, scrunching up his face.

After a couple minutes of questionable discussion, Will didn't know how to continue the banter any longer. He said, "Yeah guys, Jordan's lying. We're not brothers." The chat screamed yet again in disappointment and confusion.

"Aw, Will, you might have let it continue a bit longer," Jordan said as he admitted to his joke. "We might have tricked some people for a couple days, or something, before revealing it wasn't true." He laughed.

"Dude, no one was going to believe it," Will said. He wasn't really someone who enjoyed cleaning up lies spread by pranks or practical jokes.

"I think somebody would have believed it," Jordan responded. He smiled.

'Look at all those chickens!', the meme played again, celebrating another contribution.

"Thanks to Ashley from Oregon for the ten dollars," Jordan said, reading the donation. "Every bit counts, and whatever we have leftover goes to charity!" he repeated.

Then it hit him. "Oh, shoot, Will...we have to eat the hot peppers now," Jordan said, dejectedly. "That's a thousand five hundred dollars."

"Wow. Just wow," Will commented. "This is going to disagree with my stomach. I still haven't eaten dinner yet."

Within a couple moments, both boys had milk and a hot pepper in front of them. "Ready?" Jordan asked. "One, two, three, go!" The sound of crunching raw vegetables could be heard, and momentarily after, cries of pain.

"Ahhh...my mouth," Jordan whimpered. "It's on fire."

"Mine isn't too bad, dude," Will said. "Only the texture is just as bad as last time," he added, his eyes starting to water.

"Aw, Will, why do we keep doing these things? This is torture!" Jordan said, as he started to gulp down his glass of milk.

"Because you love me," Will said jokingly. Jordan laughed through the milk. "No, we do it because it entertains the viewers, and so that I can go to PAX and see you."

"Well said, friend," Jordan replied.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, lies happened. Turns out there's 29 chapters, not 21. Also, I quit this project literally mid write--one of the chapters in the middle here is literally cut off.
> 
> Also turns out it's quite 15-year old and the writing is not as great as I thought.
> 
> Also turns out I thought League of Legends was on Steam, you played Jinx in the mid lane, and you called the mid lane the center lane. Fantastic.

It was around a week and a half later, and Will was finally landing in Seattle, Washington. Jordan was waiting at the airport with Zack, Will Shep, and Devon, three other members of the Cube who had already arrived. The tension in the air was palpable. Jordan was keeping his fans informed on Twitter, posting status updates and taking selfies with his friends. It already felt like a dream, meeting the guys he gamed with every day, and seeing these personalities in real life, but even so, he couldn't wait for Will to come.

And then—"Hey guys," a familiar voice came. Jordan looked up to see a boy who must have been six feet tall approaching them, luggage in tow. He had black, curly hair, and he was wearing a red hat.

"Will! Hey, man!" Jordan got up and greeted his friend, and gave him a hug. Phones and cameras were already out all around, and plenty of selfies were taken. Everyone exchanged greetings and questions as they walked outside towards Jordan's car. All five piled into the small sedan, and they drove off.

Jordan dwelled in an apartment house, where he lived alone with his brother and cat. His brother was barely in high school, but he was very independent and usually did his own thing. Nevertheless, Jordan had to be responsible, taking care and providing for all three living beings who breathed under his roof. Will still lived with his parents, so in that regard, they were different—Jordan shouldered quite a few duties that Will didn't have.

After dropping the other guys off at the places they were staying, Jordan and Will finally arrived at Jordan's apartment complex. Carrying Will's luggage between them, the boys climbed the stairs to the second flight and opened the door to his apartment. They set Will's things down, greeted Jordan's black cat, Sam, and started chatting.

A great bromance had met, and the world was happy; for a moment, at least.

The next few days were what Will described afterwards as the best time of his life. The entire Cube group held a fan meet-up near the convention that lasted for hours. Will found it amazing, matching faces to tweets and YouTube comments, and seeing each person that he had the privilege of making happy every day of the week. He took so many selfies that he couldn't have possibly counted them afterwards, and some people even brought him little gifts. One girl brought matching friendship bracelets for Jordan and Will, each with the others' initial on it. Will spent time talking with his viewers, and the amazing conversations only rekindled his astonishment for how much a YouTube video could do for people, let alone himself. It was really overwhelming seeing the humans behind all the internet fandom, and being able to visualize that behind each and every comment and tweet were real people. And to think that the hundreds of people who were able to come to Seattle to meet him were only a fraction of the thousands of followers he had!

The rest of the week was spent filming various videos and gaming together. Will and Jordan took the ice bucket challenge together, pouring ice-cold water over their heads to support ALS research. They recorded a video of their reactions to Miracle Berries with Will Shep and Devon, which was to be posted on YouTube the following week. On Will's last day in America, the boys went skydiving, jumping out of a plane at an altitude of ten thousand feet. It was the most daring thing either of them had done, and it was the most thrilling experience Will ever had. To be able to do it with his best friend only made it better.

However, even though Will thoroughly enjoyed meeting his viewers, experiencing the American culture, and especially skydiving (he would never forget it), his favorite part of the trip was being able to see and talk with Jordan in real life, and play video games with him in the same room. They would laugh and trashtalk each other, screenwatch and shout with victory. The boys had live question-and-answer sessions with their fans, and Sam the cat would interrupt them hilariously. They'd have fun fooling around and singing; Will would cheat and Jordan would try to outcheat him. Even though they could talk with each other over the internet any time they wished, and even play games together perpetually, it wasn't the same as doing it in the same room.

But it was all a blur. Neither of them had enough time to soak the entire experience in. All too soon, Will was boarding the plane back to Southampton. They said their goodbyes, and distance separated the friendship again.

 

=+~~~+=

 

A week had passed, and Will got on Skype to see if Jordan was online to record a video. _Strange_ , he thought, _this is the longest I've ever not talked with Jordan in...maybe three months_. He poked him with the message, "Are you there?" and sat back and waited. He spun around in his chair to survey his small bedroom.

Most of it was filled with his desk and bed; in the corner sat his console compartment, and his old electric guitar that he had played back in tenth year of school. Yet Will rarely paid attention to anything but his desk and bed; since he was a school dropout, his life now consisted solely of sitting at the computer or sleeping.

A minute later, Jordan replied, saying "still sleeping." Will dismissed the idea of recording (it was early in the morning in Seattle), and logged on to the Cube SMP to work on building his house and stables.

That afternoon, Will again proposed recording a clip or two to Jordan, but Jordan said he was "busy" and would contact him "later". He must be doing errands that day; sometimes Jordan had to buy things for Sam, or get groceries, or help his younger brother with something. Both boys weren't in school, and they spent nearly all of their time gaming on the Cube or managing YouTube, yet Jordan had more obligations to fulfill.

The next day, Jordan still managed to make an excuse for not talking with Will, and Will started to feel frustrated. It wasn't like Jordan to not have any time to spend time with him in days. He tried editing the footage from the skydiving trip, but it felt too tedious to slog through.

Finally, at around eight o'clock in the evening, Will was lying on his bed, scrolling through Twitter, when Skype started ringing animatedly. He bolted out of bed, threw on his headset, and picked up the call. It was Jordan.

"Hey, Jordan!" Will said, with an audible smile.

"Hello," Jordan said, a bit frostily.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Will asked, after a moment's pause.

"I need to talk with you, Will," Jordan said, with a serious tone in his voice.

"Sure thing you do; you haven't even tweeted me for a week," Will nudged jokingly, with a little laugh in his voice. The silence on the other end was enough to tell him he had said the wrong thing. "Okay, go ahead," he prompted, waiting for whatever Jordan had to say.

"Look, Will, I haven't talked to you for a reason," Jordan started, falteringly. He paused. "When I got the opportunity to meet you at PAX, I was genuinely excited."

"I was too, dude," Will interjected.

"I was looking forward to it all so much, but it wasn't what I was expecting, Will," Jordan said.

"What do you mean by that? Everything we did together was sick. The fan meetup was amazing, playing games was awesome, and skydiving—"

"No, that's not what I'm talking about. Will, you really weren't who I thought you were. Somehow, being around you made me feel so unhappy. Yes, I had fun at all of those activities. But something seems to have changed. You were dampening my mood with negativity, one way or another."

"Huh?" Will said, confused. "You're saying I'm different? I don't know what you mean, Jordan. I'm still Will, the same guy who likes to play games with you."

Jordan paused, biting his lip. "I don't know, dude. Whenever we would talk, you'd always joke about Graser, or say something about Ryan, and in general, be negative towards the other guys. It really brings me down to think about you being...being someone who can't respect or consider my friends' personalities and feelings. Because of this, I don't want to record with you as often, Will." Jordan spilled everything that had been plaguing him for days.

Will sat there, at his desk, sitting in his chair, staring at his monitors but not seeing what was on them. "Is that it, Jordan?" he said, a bit hurt. "You don't want to record with me anymore? Or talk with me?"

"I just don't want to be as close as we have been, Will. I'm trying very hard to lead a positive life, and you're making that difficult for me to do. It's for my own happiness; it makes me unhappy to think of who you really are and how negatively you treat other people; being around you only reminds me of it," Jordan said, leaning back in his chair.

"And just seeing me and talking with me in real life changes all of this?" Will said, now yelling, choking on his spit. His eyes clouded over with tears. "I haven't changed, Jordan! Why didn't you think I was so—negative before? What does seeing me face to face change about me?"

"That's just it—I assume that you haven't changed at all," Jordan continued, "and that bothers me even more. You're basically two-faced, the way you act online versus in real life. I can't have your attitude constantly ruining my day, and I can't be around you perpetually because of that." He was trying to keep a cool head, but it was becoming very difficult.

"If you insist on thinking I'm so different, why can't you just deal with the online me?" Will demanded, banging his fist on his desk. "You haven't even talked to me after PAX! And you claim to know I'm the one ruining your life?" He was crying now.

"If you really cared about me, you'd hope I'd be happy," Jordan retorted defensively.

"You being happy? Is that what this is all about? You're cutting me off just so you can be happy? What about me? What about my happiness?" Will was practically screaming.

His mom poked her head in his room and said, "Hey, quiet down a bit. I'm trying to work."

"Go away, Mom," Will lashed out. "I can be as loud as I want." She shut the door, annoyed.

Turning back to the computer, Will shouted, "You're being incredibly selfish, Jordan. I hope you realize that. And I hope this makes you _happy_ , ending our friendship."

"I'm not ending it; we can still be friends. Just not...hang out as much together," Jordan countered, trying to mollify Will's temper. But Will had already hung up. _Fine, he can't even respect me anymore,_ Jordan thought to himself. _We don't have to be friends if he doesn't want to_.

He got up and walked over to his bedroom window, opening it. He tore the bracelet that he had received at the fan meet-up off his wrist, and threw it out the window. The beads satisfyingly clattered to the pavement below. Jordan shut the window with a bang, and fell on his bed, pulling out his phone. Upon opening Twitter, he saw that Will had already blocked him.

That night at 2 o'clock in the morning, Will lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't fall asleep, so he got back out of bed and logged into Minecraft. He half-heartedly tried to play some single match PvP games, but he couldn't land a single bow-shot, and his swording was sub-par, something very out of character for him. He tried playing some survival games, but even the more lighthearted game felt frustrating. It troubled him that he had reacted so recklessly to what Jordan had to say, but beyond his rash reaction, he convinced himself that he was the one who had been treated unfairly. _Why was I the one injusticed, inconvenienced, pushed aside, because Jordan needed to be happy? Why did I never know my friend was so selfish?_ Will thought. _We were so close. Heck, he even joked about us being brothers once, and it's almost true. Used to be, that is._ Lying back down on his bed and gathering the blankets around him, he shut his eyes and refused to think about his ex-friend.

And then he found himself back in Jordan's room in Seattle, watching him play Call of Duty, answering fans' questions, laughing and having a good time. They played Grand Theft Auto together, screaming and driving cars around crazily, smiling and having fun. Will was playing with Sam, taking photos of of the strangely-behaved cat, Jordan chuckling at Will's amusement. They browsed Twitter together, showing each other photos from the meet-up, or selfies of the other Cube members. They looked through the gifts they had received from their viewers, organizing all the thoughtful things they had got. They laid their wrists side by side, wearing the friendship bracelets, one sporting the initial 'W' and the other 'J', and they took a picture.

And then Will woke up in his own bed. It was morningtime, although he couldn't tell just by looking outside. The sun was already high in the sky, but his room was still dark, because the sun was covered by ominous rain-clouds. Will remembered the events of the evening before, and he realized he had been dreaming. He wished he could return into the dream, where things were happy, but it was slipping away from him even now. He lifted his arm so that he could see his wrist, but there was nothing on it; since the meet-up, he had lost the bracelet. He turned on his phone to see the time. It was already 10:16 in the morning, and Will was overcome with dread at the thought of the backup of messages that would be waiting for him when he turned on his computer. He pushed the thought away, rolled over, and went back to sleep, hoping to reach again that happy dreamland found in slumber. Outside, thunder shook the sky with ferocity.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I might have taken a while to write the third assignment. It was a self-condemnation, okay?
> 
> This chapter introduces what I think might be the best character in the book? She's still not that good, so don't set your expectations too high. No, I had no idea how Mortal Kombat worked/probably still don't. Yes, looking back, I wish I had put Street Fighter instead.

That same night, somewhere else, in a damp, low-roofed attic that was mostly unfinished, yet well furnished, sat a girl. She had brown skin, although one could barely tell, because she was wearing the hood on her sweater so that it blanketed her face in darkness. She had voluminous black hair that spilled out of the hood; it was beautifully textured, yet tangled and unkempt. In the dark abyss of her hood, one could make out two eyes, as piercing as a cat's eyes in the nighttime, yet they were nothing but reflections.

She sat at a small desk with a laptop in front of her. Behind her, in the attic, was a cozily furnished queen-size bed, although it looked neglected and stiffly expensive. Furry rugs covered the floor, and the rafters overhead dripped with pink insulation. On one side of the desk, there was a tall bookshelf, filled with ancient books that looked like they hadn't been touched for years. On the other side, there was a small cabinet that housed a couple of game consoles and a knot of wires, and on top, a small, but quality TV monitor. In the corner of the room, a dusty clarinet sat on its stand; it needed maintenance and repair. A lamp on the desk was the only source of light in the room, since outside the singular porthole-like window the sky was smitten with blackness. The illumination from the lamp was bright and gave off a certain warmth, but the light was sharp and harsh.

The girl couldn't feel the hotness of the lamp, because she already wore a warm sweater and extremely fuzzy slippers. She sat on her laptop now, scrolling through the pictures that the Cube members had posted from PAX, looking at the smiles on their faces and reading the joy in their eyes. She saw the photo of Jordan and Will, happy to have met each other for the first time. She sat there, thinking, sad, and envious. Why did they get to be so happy? How different were they from her? Why did they get to have all the fun, all the attention of thousands of people around the world?

Because she was just Kerry Mehta. Just another eleventh year, who barely made passing grades and who had no friends except those she got to grab and throw in wrestling club. Because she was just another person, another voice, drowned out in the ocean of people. Just some girl, boarding in another couple's attic, never leaving it except for school. She was just another ugly face, somebody who stayed away from mirrors to save herself the chore of looking at her own reflection.

Yet, she told herself that it wasn't fair that the Cube members got the attention they did. She was still in school, unlike some of the Cube members, who had dropped out of school or chosen not to go to college because of YouTube. She was a console gamer, so good at playing fighting games that she rarely lost a battle. Each of the Cube members were only sandbox PC gamers, nowhere near as prestigious gamers as she was, yet they could interest so many people just playing Minecraft, of all things. Half of them had voices as annoying as screaming children, and the other half made videos that she could fall asleep to.

Most importantly, they were just other teens, other kids. It simply wasn't fair that they got what they had, and she got nothing. Actually, she got less than nothing; she was ignored. She was over it all; always being overlooked and not being given her fair share.

It especially bothered her that Will had dropped out of secondary school two years early, yet still got to be the YouTube celebrity he was, just because Jordan had seen his tweets and videos and invited him to join the Cube. She clenched her muscles, infuriated by the inequality in the situation.

She slammed the lid of her laptop in frustration. Kicking the collection of empty Monster Energy cans which were strewn across the floor, she went and sat down on the fringed rug on the floor in front of her console cabinet. She threw on a pair of headphones and slotted Mortal Kombat II into one of the boxes. She selected an character with ice powers and started a quick-mode game, on extreme difficulty.

Fists at the ready, she was thrown into an arena in front of an abandoned ancient temple. And in dropped her opponent, a pink-skinned spider girl. The start signal went off and Kerry was quickly in with a double punch. The spider girl recovered from her fall and slowly turned, feebly throwing a fist Kerry's way, almost as if she was sleeping, but Kerry was much too quick; she had flashed past her opponent and nipped her from behind. Already the girl's health was very low and Kerry hadn't yet taken a hit. The spider girl turned around and looked Kerry in the eye. Kerry held her ground as the girl ran at full speed towards her. Casting an ice slick on the floor, the girl lost her traction on the floor and Kerry was able to punch her off of her feet for another hard fall on the ground. As Kerry ran in for the final moves, she suffered an uppercut, but the moment after, the spider girl was lying on her back on the floor, covered in exploded snowballs which had met their target. Health bar depleted, the girl blinked for a moment and disappeared in a bone-exploding detonation.

 _Too easy_ , thought Kerry, as she was transported to a bridge overhanging a wide medieval castle moat. She found herself staring down a musclebound midget-soldier, who looked menacing but not very daunting at all. As the starting signal was given, Kerry burst out of the gate with a ice block stun, which she broke open with a jumping ground pound. The midget was ready to punch, but Kerry was equally ready for his rhythm. Punch, block, two more quick punches, block again, and jump over his head--there! A backwards kick, duck, then a dive at his knees, and the castle knight was felled. Kerry answered the final call to finish him with a strong punch in the gut, and the midget was impaled on ceiling spikes.

As she celebrated the perfect combo, she was transported to the final arena--a tropical forest. A ninja fell into the playing boundaries, complete with shruikens and poisonous earth abilities. Kerry had just been toying with the previous opponents, but she knew the ninja would be set on a very challenging difficulty. She'd have to be on her game now, but she knew that if she concentrated hard enough, she could defeat the ninja with no problem. As she started to plan out initial strategies, the start signal caught her off guard and she was greeted by a flight of entangling vines headed for her body. Quickly, she jumped to avoid them, and somersaulted backwards. She ran towards the ninja, intent on getting some melee action in, but the ninja unexpectedly grabbed her by the waist and threw her on the floor behind him. Getting up from the fall, she was met by another wave of vines. She tried to jump to avoid the ranged attack, but each jump was anticipated by her wily opponent, and each jump was only another collision with the ninja's vines. More than half of her health bar had disappeared before she had headlocked the ninja and started pummelling his chest. It seemed like she had glitched the ninja into an inescapable position, until he whipped out a shruiken and her foot was cut open, forcing her to back off. _Maybe another jump stunt,_ she thought. But as she tried to confuse the ninja with an over-the-head leap, her freezing attack was dissolved by a vine stun, a noose caught her arms, and from there out, Kerry was only able to lie on the floor as she met death by shruikens.

 _Dang,_ she thought. _I'll get it._ After the losing screen had played, she mechanically selected the ice character again, ready to replay until she beat the game. As she played and played and played, she completely forgot her anger against the Cube, or Will; her mind was occupied with performing pretty jump stunts and well-timed combos. Kerry didn't notice when the sun rose, or when her pet rat woke up, complaining for food, until Mr. Waring knocked on her door, telling her it was time for school.


	4. Chapter 4

Jordan woke up early and carelessly pulled on a sweater and some sweatpants. Stolid look on his face, he mindlessly slipped into a pair of sneakers and grabbed a warm hat off the hooks on the wall. Calling for his cat Sam, he shoved the hat on and opened the door. After seeing Sam down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk, he turned the other way and started hiking towards the edge of town, deep in thought.

If there was anything he knew clearly, it was that all he wanted was to be happy. It was much more complicated than it sounded, to be sure. Leading a positive life, shutting out any of the negative thoughts or things. _Happiness is a fickle thing_ , he thought. _I'm not even sure how it works, but I know that I wasn't happy._

He reached the park and cut right through it, heading for the wooded trails on the opposite side. Once inside the silent forest, he slowed his hurried walk and stopped to take in the scenery. Fresh morning air snuck between the pines, filling his lungs with a sense of relaxation. Songbirds somewhere in the distance chirped to each other merrily, saying their good mornings.

He didn't know why, or perhaps he wouldn't admit himself to thinking about why, but PAX had made him unhappy. Spending time with Will had made him unhappy. Yes, he did have a lot of fun, but it was all unsatisfying. Something was causing him to feel badly, and once Will flew again for England, Jordan immediately figured it had to be him. Something in him loathed Will, rared inside of him to lash out.

Meandering along, Jordan eventually spotted the singing birds, nearly blended in with their surroundings, turning drab blues for the winter. He watched as they sang back and forth, almost having fun imitating each other. They chattered in harmony, gurgling with laughter. He abruptly broke a twig he was standing on, and one of the birds turned to look at him. Upon seeing him standing there, it took flight and sped the other way. The other bird quickly followed suit. Jordan continued hiking.

He had been feeling unhappy, his outlook was marred by negativity. He hadn't been feeling okay, a rumble in the bottom of his stomach boiled threateningly. If he needed something, he would get it. Will was making it impossible for him to be positive, and thus, he cut him off.

Jordan reached the other end of the forest, stepping into bright light. The sun had risen high since he had entered the trees, and now the park on the other side of town welcomed him with dancing green grass. He once again walked right through the plaza and cut around the walkpaths, running across streets and speedwalking through the trafficked sidewalks, back in the direction of his apartment.

He thought he'd feel better now; Will was gone. What more was there to be unhappy about? He should feel exhilarated now, rid of the past week's troubles. Free to feel the way he wanted. Instead, he seemed unable to express any emotion but impassive unfeeling. His face wouldn't move from the stone stare it displayed. While he couldn't move it to something else, Jordan felt a strange sense of not really caring to try and change it, either.

Rushing through the crowds on the Seattle sidewalks, Jordan suddenly spotted a girl, pretty face, beautiful brown locks of hair, a loud outfit, and a confident swagger. Although he was immediately attracted to the assertive no-business air she walked with, he suddenly couldn't look at her and instead put his head down and kept walking. The thought flashed across his mind that he had dressed so thoughtlessly that morning. A couple moments later, she had passed him. He turned his head to watch her retreating figure, never to see her again. Sting in his chest, he kept walking towards home at the same rate as before.

He finally reached his apartment building. He climbed the stairwell and knocked on his own door. His brother opened it for him and ignoringly returned to making his breakfast. Sam was prowling around the living area, having already beat him in coming back. Hanging up his hat, he reached down to pet Sam as he came to snuggle around Jordan's shoes. He pulled some eggs out of the fridge and turned on the stove to cook breakfast.


	5. Chapter 5

Will woke up that evening, refreshed with sleep. He felt really energetic for a moment, until he remembered how things had gone down with Jordan yesterday. He started thinking about how he had responded, and how he had shouted back at his friend—well, not his friend anymore. Although he still felt cast aside, he did feel ashamed of how he had reacted, and thought to say sorry for it. He started thinking out an apology to send to Jordan later, but promptly decided to forget about it. _I don't need to apologize for anything when I am the one getting the short end of things_ , he told himself. Besides, Jordan would mostly likely laugh him off, or, worse, respond stiffly and unapologetically.

It troubled him that the two could have been such best friends before, spending hours a day chatting and playing video games with each other, and suddenly, almost all at once, what almost seemed like a fantasy came to an end.

He made up his mind to try and forget the matter for as long as he could, leastways. He got out of bed and sank into his desk chair, turning on his computer. Immediately flashing notifications came from every corner of the screens, letting him know that multitudes of messages were waiting for him from all over the internet.

He opened Skype up first. He saw unread chat messages from Devon, requests to record clips from Graser, and concerned questions from around 5 other Cube members who hadn't seen him playing Minecraft, or even being on the internet, for that matter. There were a few missed calls from Zack; quite a few, actually. In the mountain of notifications, one let him know that Jordan had blocked him. He quit Skype, trying not to think about Jordan.

He clicked over to Tweetdeck next. He slowly scrolled through the feed of tweets from the accounts he followed, skimming the messages he had missed by being away for more than twenty-four hours. There were a couple direct messages from Ryan and Brayden, asking where he'd been, as well as a half-joking tweet from Julio, saying, "Will hasn't tweeted in fourteen hours! Someone make sure he hasn't been murdered in his sleep! ;D".

Will turned to the tweets fans had sent him. At first, there was the normal stuff; commendments on his latest video, the occasional fan art, and the random displays of affection (being an eighteen year-old guy, many of his young female viewers found him attractive). But as he progressed through the feed, there were perturbing messages here and there.

"Is everything okay?" one person asked.

"Are you uploading today?" another demanded.

"Did something happen to you?" somebody inquired.

"What did you say to Jordan?!?" yet another articulated. He didn't know how it occurred, but some fans were able to know what had happened about him before he even said a word. He had done nothing but sleep for a while and people already were demanding to know what was up. Perhaps Jordan had already told everyone about it.

Frustrated by not being able to escape his problem, Will gave up trying to read the rest of his fan feed. He opened YouTube, and started reading his latest comments, a usual source of positive feedback. However, between all the nice notes, the negative ones seemed to stare unusually harshly out at Will. He read,

"I don't get what just happened to you and Jordan. You got along so nicely just before."

"How come you're not following Jordan on Twitter anymore? You are best friends, right?"

"You're a terrible person for whatever you did to Jordan. I used to like you and watching your videos, but now I can't watch them without thinking of who you really are."

He couldn't take it anymore; he was becoming more mad than he intended to be. He opened the reply box and wrote, "If you don't like what I do, you're free to unsubscribe and leave. No one's making you watch my videos." _Man_ , he thought, _why do people make such terrible assumptions from the rumors they hear?_

He quickly left YouTube as well, and went lastly to the place where he knew he could find at least an ounce of comfort. He browsed to ask.fm, an anonymous question and answer site, and opened up his questions. Quickly scrolling past the newest inquiries, which he knew he didn't want to read, he looked through the long list for the good ones (half of them were dating questions, something he couldn't avoid on this type of website).

"What do you like to do for fun?" asked one person. He thought on it a bit, and then answered, "Mostly video games, honestly. I don't do much other than play video games, but I did play guitar with some of my friends in a 'band' once. I still have my guitar, but I never use it anymore."

He read one that hit home: "I just found out you have Crohn's disease. I'm sorry, man, that really sucks. I know it can be hard." It warmed his heart to know that somebody still cared about him. "Thanks," he typed out. "It is definitely hard. I got really sick in tenth year for like 7mo, and because I got so behind, I just dropped school (there was no way I was going to make it up). No doubt it has taken a toll on my life, but I'm hanging in there. Thanks for caring. <3"

"Why do you make YouTube videos?" asked another person. This one Will knew the answer to immediately. "At least for now, I think it is my purpose in life to make others happy. Right now, I can do that through making YouTube videos. I put the work into making videos for you guys, because I hope they will help at least one person through their day. :)"

Just for fun, Will randomly chose one of the dating questions, in hopes of dissuading off a general category of them. "will u date me im 17 red hair and brown eyes", an anonymous girl asked. "tbh I don't care about eye color/hair color and all of that," he replied. "I just look for someone I can get along with really well. A best friend, so's to speak."

It was true; all he wanted in a girlfriend was a best friend.

While he answered these little queries, Will forgot all about Jordan and what had happened, and he felt relaxed. He was only coping; distracting himself from the harsh truth, and he knew it. In the very back of his mind, Will acknowledged the fact that he had sizeable questions he needed to handle, but it felt nice to remain in the bliss of ignoring them, for the present.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bro this is the worst story ever but I'm still posting it one chapter at a time whenever I remember.

Coming home from school (if she could call it home), Kerry plodded along in chafe, hat tassels dourly swinging. She turned off the sidewalk to walk up to the blue mansion, very wide from side-to-side and three stories tall. The garden was currently sporting a combination of perfect pink tulips and buttery white daffodils, but Kerry had no appreciation for such petty things at the moment. She let herself in the front door, tramped up the attic stairs, and threw her satchel on the bed, which was still neatly made, since she had never slept in it last night. Her day hadn't been a good one (when was it ever?) and she was in a nasty mood. Playing games the night before had escorted her away from her problems, but the escape was short-lived; when she came back to reality, none of her problems had disappeared.

She slogged down the stairs and took a look around the kitchen. Dishes sat clean, drying in the rack by the sink. The round table in the middle of the kitchen was devoid of anything, and it was freshly immaculate. Mrs. Waring, the landlady, kept a cozy kitchen. Kerry walked over to the door to the garage and opened it. All three of the cars which normally resided in it at night were gone. Mrs. Waring must be out doing errands, Mr. Waring had most likely gone golfing with his fellow retirees, and, as usual, her parents were gone.

While Kerry lived in the attic of the Warings' mansion, her parents made home in the basement. Long before the Mehtas even started boarding with the Warings, both of Kerry's two older siblings, Clay and Serah, had already graduated university with honors and gone on to make their own lives. Kerry had always lived in the shadow of their academic success, and now her parents seemed to express their disappointment with her less than unsatisfactory grades by ignoring her. The Mehta parents were perpetually at work, and it seemed as if the only connotation that was associated with them was an irritating nagging to work harder at school, at home, at anything but video games. She had always been the oddish kid who had no qualms about skiving school when she felt like it, and instead preoccupied herself with mastering a new video game or emulating her favorite jazz recordings on her clarinet.

She couldn't skive off school any longer, since Mr. Waring now offered to drive her to school daily, and she couldn't escape school once she had been escorted through the prison doors. She was stuck for seven hours of every day, trapped inside the miserable place, constantly neglected and treated as worthless; not even one of the nobodies. Neither did she play clarinet any longer, and video games were becoming less interesting by the day.

Going back upstairs, she tugged her fuzzy hat off her head and fell into her chair. Out of habit, her hands autonomously opened her laptop and guided her through her social media. Opening YouTube was depressing, because there was nothing in her subscription box worth watching. She looked through Twitter. The usual stared back at her: well-angled, well-edited selfies of 'friends' at school, the inspirational quotes, the funny moments (which did not amuse her at all today), and tweets from the YouTubers she watched.

Every conversation, every photo stung her in the heart. The YouTubers celebrated thousands and thousands of followers, her peers gloated over a few favorites she couldn't begin to garner, and her own lonely Twitter was entirely devoid of any activity or attention.

She didn't have any friends, and she could only watch as everybody around her had real, genuine friends they could hang out with and confide in. Everybody had very sweet family and friends, and she had none. The Cube held influence, attention; she had tried for it, and the internet only turned a blind eye. Why was she not worth what they were?

Everywhere she went, Kerry felt insignificant and inadequate. She was more than just an outcast and a shunned person; she was invisible.

On top of all this, she was aware that she was unhappy, and she envied those who were happy. She hated those who were happy. Kerry was hurting on the inside, and more than anything else, she just wanted something, somebody else to hurt more than she did. And who better to take it out on than the people who had all the things she didn't have.

Reaching for her can of Monster, she opened Twitter again. Writing a tweet, she wrote, "@WillKingston your vids are so hopelessly horrible that the world'd be better off without them." She hit send. A dialog popped up, letting her know that the message had been sent. Reading it over again, the tweet made her feel a little better. Granted, she didn't feel any less bitter, but she worked off of that type of energy. Yeah, she felt good.


End file.
